


5 Times Cody Fett Really Wanted To Kiss Ahsoka Tano

by basically_thearlaich



Series: By Its Cover [2]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 'tis spooky season folks, (must be a Kenobi thing), 5 plus 1, Ahsoka has a strong liver, Atin/Laseema, Besany/Ordo, Cody-centric, Darman/Etain, Exploration, FINALLY A KISS, Fluff, Introspection, Jesse is a beer snob, Kal is Jango's brother, Kisses, Multi, Parties, Partying, Soft Pining, Softness, Wakes & Funerals, bi-sexual Cody, carving turnips, consent-issues explored, jangowan, no Venku though, nobody warned Cody about Ahsoka, teenaged drinking, there's a lot of ilu's going around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26973832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basically_thearlaich/pseuds/basically_thearlaich
Summary: and the one time she kissed him[an extension of This Is That Taste and By Its Cover]
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody/Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody/CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody/CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: By Its Cover [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968460
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	1. The Afternoon

[...when Fives took _that_ picture of them]

+++

It’s certainly not the first time he finds himself looking at her lips and _wondering_ but-- It’s the first time he’s close enough, really, to do something about it. Or… No, that’s not true either.

There is something new about this moment though. Even if he can’t put his finger on it.

Maybe it’s the calm of the afternoon. The kind that comes with summer and with the knowledge that these kinds of days-- They’re not numbered. Not per se. But they feel like it sometimes.

It feels like forever since he’s run around with a water-gun in his hand trying his damnedest to get a proper hit on Kal or Atin or even his own _buir_ while practically dousing Boba in the wet. It’s lasted until their little one had crowed in annoyance and retaliated by pushing him into the pool with Prudii’s help.

Cody hadn’t protested much even when Rex had laughed himself sick at him because the _di’kut_ had stood close enough to the edge of the pool for Ahsoka to topple him in with a clever, forceful bump of her hips and Cody had never seen a more elegant topple. Or a more satisfied Ahsoka when she’d given the sputtering blond a _look_ over the rim of her glasses and sipped loudly from her straw like something out of a movie-scene.

The fact that the shorts clung to her hips like a slick coat stuck to an _otta_ and the reddish maroon of her bathing suit hugged her figure like a dream hadn’t hurt either.

Still doesn’t hurt to be quite honest.

She’d stretched out under the tree with a book in her lap and her headphones on to study like the most peaceful _tooka_ amidst chaos. Had looked…

He knows he shouldn’t be surprised by this. He’d missed roughly six months of her development after her return from the main country but it had surprised him to see just how she’d grown.

And how much she’d stayed the same.

Rex had visited her while she’d been gone. Had had all sorts of stories for them and had brought a good deal of her stuff with him when she’d fallen victim to yet another chain of book-stores but that was nothing necessarily new.

What’s new was the odd new confidence with her own body.

It suits her.

And while it certainly isn’t the first time Cody wants to kiss her, he _really_ wants to kiss her right now. When she’s bedded on Rex’ folded towel under their heads, side rising and falling with her even breaths in her nap. Book fallen between him and her in her limp fingers and he stretches carefully to pry it out of her precarious hold lest the pages creased.

Behind her he can see the tan, yet paler, countenance of Rex – just as asleep as Ahsoka and-- It should be an unthinkable thing, perhaps. To kiss another when he is finally in a relationship he’s been burning for since he’d first realized that he was into men.

Only… he’s into men _as well_.

Ahsoka is most certainly proof of that.

And it would be so easy, right now, to just roll his weight forward – just a bit – just far enough to breach the gap between him and her and learn the texture of her dark lips. To know, just once, what it was like to kiss Ahsoka Tano. She wouldn’t even have to know--

 _Oh_.

Cody frowns.

He’s an ass.

Ahsoka wouldn’t even know he’d kissed her if he’d make it soft enough but-- That’s _so_ not the point of kissing someone else. That had never been the point of kissing Rex either and he’d never want to treat her differently than Rex in that regard.

Kissing someone who doesn’t know they’re being kissed and is unable to object is certainly not the expression of fondness he’d want to convey. That’s just… Well, _creepy_ at the very least and _violating_ at its very worst. Cody doesn’t want that.

He sighs then. Shuffles closer to leech off the pleasant warmth that Rex-and-Ahsoka seem to give off and closes his eyes again, thinks on what it would be like to bend over and find her eyes open – find Rex’ eyes open – and kiss her then. Smiles at the feeling in his chest when he imagines what it would be like to feel her arms around his neck, her lips moving and responding under his.

That’s what he wants, after all. But until he can properly communicate that he’s just going to lie next to her in the shade of the tree, shielding them from the late-summer-sun and bask in her nearness for as long as he’s allowed to.


	2. The Morning

[...when she sat with them on the day after the welcome-home-party for Jesse‘s tour]

+++

It's four in the morning.

It's four in the morning and the sun is painting the late-night-early-day-sky in shy pastels that announce the break of day when dawn hasn't quite begun yet and the indigo of night still blankets most of the firmament.

They're exhausted and hung-over and he feels a peculiar mixture of tired, wired and wobbly-on-his-feet that makes it hard to look away from Ahsoka Tano.

She'd been hoarse when she’d giggled with Rex as they’d tried to quietly pour their glass-bottles into the large bin to be carted off by garbage collection later this morning.

The stroke of genius to have Jesse's _Olarom_ -Party yester-night had been hers. Clever enough to know that it would likely escalate, she'd done arranged the party on the night before garbage collection would come for glass and plastics. Which was fantastic.

But loud. In the case of glass.

Which is why neither Rex nor Ahsoka had been successful in remaining quiet about their throwing away which had resulted in husky giggles and another attempt at doing it quietly and absolutely failing.

Cody had been cleaning the kitchen. Mostly successful if he may say so himself. If only the constant playing-in-lukewarm-water hadn’t made him need to piss so badly that is. He'd excused himself thrice.

The kitchen is clean now. The living room clear and the carpet hasn't suffered as badly as it possibly could have considering that Kix had apparently lived for the moments when his most favourite of persons in the universe would return from the Undying Sands and had, thus, saved up all the stories for Jesse to tell him in person.

Which had resulted in Kix shamelessly spilling on and theatrically enacting all their worst moments in the last roughly-one-and-a-half-years.

Frankly, as embarrassing as it was, it hadn't been so bad. To be brought up as an embarrassing story, if only to hear Jesse laugh at it. Curl up in absolute glee with a red face when he simply couldn't keep it together any longer and just barely not spill his beer while keeping his eyes fixed on Kix who had all their attention with his antics on the floor in front of them where he'd sat down on a thick cushion.

The carpet is cleared of any pretzel-residue and the glass bottles of Jesse's favourite beer - German, because he's a snob - have done their part in amusing Rex and Ahsoka. The vacuum rests in a corner, innocently waiting for when the household has roused and won't be bothered by the noise too much.

But they're sitting on the patio now with a pitcher of shandy between the three of them and a cup of tea in Ahsoka's hands that is warming her hands and Cody's front from where she had settled in his lap like it's the most natural thing.

Which it is, to be honest.

Touches had never been a rarity between him and Obi-Wan's adoptee ever since they'd made acquaintance and he remembers the relief he'd felt when Rex - tagging along with Cody like he had since probably forever - hadn't bothered to feel annoyed by Ahsoka's whirl-wind appearance in his room one day while the two of them had procrastinated home-work with just-one-more-game to moan about her workload.

She looks half-asleep in his embrace and Cody thinks-- He doesn't think it consciously but-- It would be so easy-- He's in the perfect position to settle his lips on Ahsoka's forehead. Slip them down to her cheeks if she would, inevitably, raise her face to question him and then settle them over her lips. Just-- Just a soft thing. Short. Brief. Just so… It'd be just to let her know. Just… Just for now. Maybe.

Ahsoka sighs in his arms, quiet and content, moving her hands deeper into the sleeves of Rex' ratty old band-vest and cradles her tea-cup sweetly.

Cody echoes her sound and closes his eyes, rests his cheek on her head and turns his face towards Rex. He can't kiss her right now. Not when they're like this - drunk and tired and on their last legs and definitely not in a position to give sound consent.

 _Jan'buir_ wouldn't even have to go for his hide - Cody would hand it over himself.

So he sighs and opens his eyes to find Rex' fond look and his quiet, pleased, little smile that he tries to hide in his sip of their brew as he turns to face the golden sunrise that paints him so beautifully.

And Cody doesn't know which way his heart will tear first - into the direction of Rex or that of Ahsoka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized that I may have to clarifiy on this point: this is not chronologically sorted. Chapter 1 happens at a later date than Chapter 2 and I've sort of forgotten where the next few chapters fall but just as a heads up, this is all over a time-line that's kind of establishing itself as I go.


	3. The Party

[when Boba turned eighteen]

+++

_That_ , is the first thing he thinks when he sees her, _is not a dress_.

Or it should, at the very least, not be called, advertised or sold as such. Dark, clingy material that sticks to skin like a wet-suit, with hemispherical cut-outs on the sides, sweeping from the underline of the bust to the first swell of hip-bones and reaching almost all the way for each other towards the centre, if it weren’t for that small separating stretch of fabric holding them together in the middle.

For all his misgivings, he has to confess that the wearer is an absolute vision in the blue lights and the dark arc of the hallway. She moves through the masses as if she owned the place. Brightness glints up at him from the thin ankle-strap of her heels and--

“Cody!” -- _fuck him but that’s Ahsoka Tano_.

Her skin is cool enough to let him know that she’s likely just arrived – a hint of the frigid outside air hiding in the crook of her neck where he buries his nose almost automatically when her arms come around his neck and his own fold around her waist by habit. He wonders if he could get away with kissing her. No-- Wait-- He’s just not used to touching so much of her skin, ‘s all. [And quickly discovering that her back is just as bare as the front.]

“’So’ika,” he greets with a cheer that is false bravado only for a second. “You’re late.”

It’s a tease that she takes with good humour, smiling at him with white teeth and intriguingly sharp canines from those black lips of hers [kissablebeautifultempting] and his hands slide from the small of her back to hold her close at the waist – an intimate gesture even before she’d worn… _this_.

“Friend held me up,” she apologizes, a hand still on his shoulder. “But I wouldn’t miss Bob’ika’s Birthday for anything in the world.”

He bends then, almost close enough to kiss her but-- _Not now_. [Not ever, maybe.] “We’re in the back-room,” he lets her know. “Rex is already three drinks in and I’ve no idea what Fives has had before he came but Echo has all his hands full wit’im.”

He’s close enough for his lips to graze her skin. Close enough to feel her cheek warm under his exhale and close enough to smell more of her. Close enough to kiss her if he wanted.

And he wants to.

Wants to push her up against the wall and learn the taste of her mouth until they’ve both forgotten about Boba’s Birthday, until they’ve both forgotten about their whereabouts, until she shakes in her heels and the hand on his shoulder would _cling_ , until--

He steps away. Gives her a smile and another once over. “You look marvellous,” he admits, basks in her smile.

“You’re sure it’s not too much?”

For his nerves? Definitely.

Still he shakes his head. “It’s a Party, So’ika. We’re all letting loose in some way.”

He presses a kiss to her forehead, one hand still warming the naked curve of her hip, stowing away the memory of her silken feel against his palm and steps away. “I’ll find you in there, yeah? Can I bring you something from the bar?”

It had not, originally, been on his to-do-list, but like hell is he going to have her walk _out there_ in those masses like _that_ if he can avoid it. She’s her own woman, he won’t ever doubt that, and she can hold her ground in the face of unwanted attention better than a whole lot of other women around here maybe, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

Her fingers slip from his shoulders, card his sweaty locks from his brow like he hasn’t registered them as an annoyance. It’s a good feeling from her hand though.

“Something light maybe,” she muses.

“Gin Fizz?” He remembers when she’d drink the Tonic-mixtures like camels drank water and wouldn’t even do them the favour of being hung-over the next day but-- She’d said light and judged by her delighted smile, he’d guessed right.

“Sounds good,” she agrees, reaching for her purse and Cody stops her before she can even unlatch it.

“Jan’buir’s footing the tab tonight because he lost a bet with Boba, so don’t you worry your bank-account over a few Fizzes like that, yeah?”

Ahsoka snorts and pulls him into another hug, presses a lipstick-tacky kiss to his cheek and smiles absolutely unrepentantly when she moves away again. “I’ll keep it in mind,” she winks and saunters out of the circle of his arms and on down the hallway, bright strobe blue from the backroom lighting up her silhouette until all he can see is dark curves and strappy heels.

[“Y’could’ve warned me,” Rex groans into his ear when he’s returned with Ahsoka’s Gin Fizz and found her already causing havoc in the middle of the dance-floor with Echo and Fives. Cody snorts, “Could’ve used a warning myself,” he shrugs. Thinks of the kiss he nearly went for. And looks.]


	4. The Arrival

[when Ahsoka returned from her semester abroad]

+++

It’s probably the best day _ever_ to be him. Even the weather agrees.

Balmy with just the right amount of sun, birds playing their answer-and-call game in the gardens and the Magnolia trees finally opening their pink-white blooms wide to add to the scenery when Rex and him pull out of the drive-way to make their way to the airport.

One week of their best karking behaviour probably all year round and this is the price: fetching Ahsoka Tano from her semester abroad.

The car fills with the scent of the fresh coffee Rex had prepared and poured into a thermos for a cup or two on the ride there and it feels toasty even with the fresh air of spring.

When they arrive at the airport, they sun breaks through happy silver clouds, painting the parking lot and its thousands of cars with their sleepy lanes bright golden, filtering like a lazy benediction through the glass walls of the cafés on the ground-level deck for visitors and Cody can’t keep the smile off his face. Not that he tries to.

Rex pushes his shoulder against him, sends him stumbling with another stupid smile and when he looks at the beautiful man that is _his_ in the light, the blond looks like he’s glowing. He reels him in for a kiss, tastes the smile on his face with his own and feels incredibly _full_ in that moment.

It's surprisingly _nothing_ against the feeling that spills from him – like an overflowing cup – when he finally sees her again. When she trundles through the exit with her backpack and her customary scarf-for-flying and he’ s barely caught her eye when she _legs it_ , backpack falling o f f as she slips out of the straps on the last few steps, already reaching for him and he knows what’s coming, _braces-_ -

\--and catches the full weight of Ahsoka Tano in his arms. Legs wrapped around his hips. Arms around his shoulder, crushing her head into his neck and holding on for dear life with a laugh that sounds wet and Cody closes his eyes and wraps his arms around her back.

He holds the world in this moment.

His chest is tight but his heart feels raw, galaxy-wide and invincible. She is warm against him, soft but strong where she holds herself perfectly against him and Cody holds faster, squeezes her in a grip that he thinks opponents had tapped out of in the ring but all Ahsoka does is pull closer. Squeeze back. And it’s in that blind moment that he realizes that he wouldn’t be opposed to becoming one with her. Meld and never look back. Cody-who-has-Rex could become Cody-and-Ahsoka-who-have-Rex and he wouldn’t put up the slightest protest. Would welcome the change and dive into it.

It’s when her hold loosens, when she moves away just enough, just to look at him – and Stars isn’t she the most beautiful thing with freckles on her face and the most stunning blue eyes, even wet and teary as they are – that a _want_ tears through him with a powerful ache. He wants to kiss her.

Here. Now.

Move forward the few centimetres and give her a real karking welcome but--

Rex sighs into their embrace from behind Ahsoka, pushing weight onto Cody as he presses his temple against Ahsoka’s and catching Cody’s eyes with a knowing, calculating gleam that should make him feel guilty but his hands settle on Cody’s shoulder-blades, arms aligning with Ahsoka’s as he squishes his tan nose into the crook of her neck and Ahsoka, still holding on to Cody, pushes her head right back at the blond’s.

“Missed you,” he hears Rex mumble and the painful desire of kissing Ahsoka Tano is carefully stuffed back into a mental box – _Things I’d like to have with Ahsoka and Rex –_ where it can look pretty for now. Ahsoka coos back at Rex and Cody closes his eyes into the odd hold of the three of them and soaks the moment up for as long as it will stretch.


	5. The Wake

+++

Cody doesn’t know how to feel.

Empty?

Probably.

Confused too.

The Irish Coffee in his hand is cooling by degrees and he’s not necessarily willing to drink it. Even if it had been Etain’s favourite.

There are people in the house – most of which he knows but he can’t help the feeling like they’re intruding. Preying on a family that is now aching for the loss of one of their most important people – Atin hasn’t moved from Laseema’s side and Besany has been stealthily switching the hand that she’d give Ordo to hold. Cody can’t imagine his grip is anything but tight.

He’s been clinging to Rex himself whenever possible. Shoulders touching, fingers interlocking, never too far from one-another.

The death of a family member has a curious effect on the living, he’s finding.

There’s softness in Jan’buir when he pushes at the shoulder of his brother, there’s care in the way Obi’buir holds himself – more than there would be usually – there are more touches among those who _have_ someone, soft words, soft looks, long silences.

And still the press of people feels invasive.

Feels wrong.

Cody wants to sit down in a room and simply be alone.

He wants to pull Bob’ika into an embrace and fall asleep. He wants to give Darman space but also… but also pull him close and soothe him when he finally breaks. Stars, Cody can’t imagine what Darman feels like.

Drek, probably.

Last piece of garbage that even the collectors overlooked, rotting forlorn in some corner.

His cousin hasn’t moved from the spot where Laseema has sat him down with a gentle press on his shoulders. A corner where he could easily stand and leave, while the rest of the family had circled around him in what was almost a protective perimeter. Cody probably wouldn’t be able to reach him even if he tried. Probably shouldn’t try either. Probably would end up looking just as invasive and predatory as all these strange people feel that are milling around in their living room and kitchen, grabbing the little snacks and swapping stories about Etain. _They_ probably wouldn’t even question their right to console Darman.

Would’ve slipped through the family-perimeter and put their hands on his shoulder out of nowhere to say something intrepid and unhelpful if it weren’t--

Cody takes a sip as he watches. Fingers fiddling for Rex’ where they lean on a wall – just close enough to the kitchen to have been wordlessly delegated to the bringing of food and drink. It’s no trouble for them and he doesn’t feel like letting his cousins go hungry on top of having to deal with the kind of mass that showed up on funerals.

Until now, the family-perimeter has barely been touched, hasn’t even needed the reinforcement of Jan’buir’s sceptical not-yet-a-glare as a first line of defence more than thrice because every time one of the guests dares, there is interference in the form of the Kenobis.

Obi-Wan had been _paklalat_ for a long time even before Cody had actually gotten to know him as his buir’s _cyare_. The man had worked enough negotiations to seamlessly start, hold and end a conversation that left his counterpart often feeling better about themselves, if a bit befuddled. The red-head has a gift, and it’s liberally applied to redirect guests who think more of social etiquette than they do of individual sentiment.

And then there is Ahsoka.

Clever, pretty Ahsoka with her soft-spoken words and gentle redirections that no one would take badly in this setting at all – direct but never painfully so, when she runs her interferences. Quiet and demure and patient with Bob’ika when the tension of the room gets to be too much for him and Jan’buir has only one moment of looking torn, before she sweeps in and plucks the young one  from his  side and takes him out into the garden. 

Rex’ fingers squeeze around his. A quiet _look_ , like Cody isn’t already looking and half-in-love with the way she folds at her knees. Just enough to be of the same height as their youngest _vod’ika_ , just enough to be able to telegraph her movements properly when she runs a soothing hand through his hair and talks to him.

Cody squeezes back and swallows the wish to kiss her with a sip from his Irish Coffee.

He wants to kiss her. Badly.

He does.

Who knows when he’s ever getting the chance again?

Who knows if there isn’t another Drunk Driver around the next corner of the street, bowling Ahsoka over and then running like a _hut’uun_ as they had done to Etain?

Outside on the patio, Ahsoka pulls Boba in for a quiet _kov’nyn_ that he reciprocates with hands in her neck and a frown on his face that is too old for his age (they’d always known Boba would grow up too quickly, even before Jan’buir had said the words and taken them in as his own). She holds it long enough until Boba lets go and gives her what looks like his thanks and Ahsoka’s smile is soft and careful and honest when she lays her hand to his shoulder and lets him go.

Cody should kiss her.

Soon enough that she won’t march on without knowing.

But maybe not now.

Maybe not on a wake. He doesn’t think that’s a good place to start these kinds of things.

Instead, he squeezes Rex’ fingers again. “Care for a huddle and some down-time?”

Because even if he won’t kiss her yet, Cody knows in his heart that he will – one day. Even if it’ll only be an innocent kiss. He will kiss her one day. Not today though.

Not when she’s been running interference on the behalf of his ba’vodu’s family and when she looks like a tragedy etched in copper and black.

“I’ll go fetch her,” Rex offers and, true to his words, slips out of his grasp to steer towards Ahsoka at the other side of the room.

Cody doesn’t have to say much when he lays his hand on Jango’s shoulder – a quick dart of his eyes up the stairs tells the man all he needs to know for now. Rest and Recuperation for So’ika, who’s been running herself a bit ragged, maybe, coming of a Night-shift and near-immediately diving into the preparations for the wake, getting ready for the funeral proper and now running interference. Jan’buir’s rough palm slides over his with a squeeze and a nod.

Rex is already going up. Ahsoka’s straight back slowly slumping under her fatigue and even Kal’vodu, following their progress, gives him a nod when he finds Cody’s eyes.

Cody slips Ahsoka between Rex and him fully clothed. Pulls the day-blanket over her shoulder and slides his arm around her waist in a mirror-image to Rex’. The air is oddly laden with tension in the quiet room, even when the soft sounds of the wake below barely reach through the half-open door and when Rex’ forehead comes to land in ‘soka’s neck, Cody curls himself around her and hopes that he’ll have the chance to kiss her before she goes where he can’t follow.


	6. That Afternoon

[when there is finally a kiss]

+++

Everyone is outside, shivering through the autumn chill permeating even the thick fleece that Ahsoka has huddled in.

It looks like another steal from Rex’ wardrobe with its blue chequers and thick, woolen inside. Ahsoka nearly drowns in it, but the elastic bands around the wrists makes it easier for her to keep her hands free and he’s watched her carefully pull it up to her elbows when she’d carved away at her turnip.

Wan’buir is against pumpkins this time of year. _Inaccurate_ , he’d sniffed the first time Jan’buir had proposed it and had segued into an impassioned speech about valid historical traditions. Jan’buir hadn’t even needed to argue, rather than slide the red-head a few counter-arguments now and then to keep him going. While Cody hadn’t, officially, known what the two of them were to each other back then – one look at Jan’buir’s secret, pleased smile had told him enough.

[Half a year later, Jan’buir had sat him down for a talk about _riduurok_ and Cody had agreed to the idea of Obi-Wan Kenobi as Wan’buir quicker than Jan’buir had been able to actually get to the point.]

The patio is lively with their family, wooden planks filled with small groups of his cousins, siblings, significant others and friends and Cody wishes they had more space to sit comfortably but-- It would not be as cosy as it is if they did.

Ahsoka had sat down with Rex and Cody for their carving without much fanfare or comment and, it had struck him then, just how naturally Ahsoka fit with them, even if their agreements in itself is novel. He doesn’t have the nerve to ask, yet, but if he does, one day, manage to swallow his embarrassment of having being caught near-naked after their initial getting-together by his _buir’e_ , he might ask them for how long it had been that way.

[When he _does_ ask, Jan’buir will shrug and look at Wan’buir who will hum carefully before putting down the cooking spoon and giving Cody a very cautious look. “It’s just… always been the three of you,” he’ll say. “If I wanted to find Ahsoka, I knew I would have to brave your room and Rex’ grumbling and if I wanted to find you, I knew I’d do best to find Ahsoka first and ask her if you weren’t with her.”]

She’s the first to be done with her turnip. Quick hands much more used to the harder insides of the round root vegetable than the soft pulp of pumpkins, leaving her turnip with a crooked smile and sharp canines that could count as fangs, when she stands and stretches. Her fingers curl and uncurl, as if in want of something warmer – likely chilled and stiff even from her work.

Her knee brushes by Rex’ back when she passes the small space to bury into Wan’buir’s back like she would back when they’d been small. Unmoving from his position at the table – carving his second turnip while Jan’buir is still working on his solitary pumpkin – the red-head makes an inquisitive noise.

Cody can’t quite hear what she mumbles into his back, nor can he quite decipher the noise he responds her with but he has never quite understood the language of grunts and hums and single-syllable-words that the to of them have traded since forever. But Ahsoka hums what seems like her own approval and digs her nose into his back as her arms come around his aproned middle before she steps away.

A quick look over the assembled family later, Ahsoka vanishes inside.

When he looks back at his work, Rex catches his eyes and smiles.

“You’re nearly done with your turnip anyway,” he says softly, leaning forward to keep quiet between them. “Wash up; see if you can help.”

His own hands are reaching for Cody’s little carve-up and he bends further into Rex’ space to settle his lips over his, the most talented carver among them, before he shifts fully and gets his feet under him. He’d love to put his hands into the neck of his accomplice but that’s probably not a good idea considering their tackiness. Cody rests his forehead against Rex’.

“I love you,” he says – softly, so it remains between them.

Rex hums, tilts his head for a small peck to his lips. “I love you,” he answers with gleaming eyes and smiles wide when Cody brushes his own kiss against his lips, smiles still when he deepens it and rolls his head awkwardly into his neck when Cody abuses his larger stature to tower over him, hooking his elbow around the blond’s shoulders and taking great care not to wipe his dirty hands into the vest of the other.

When he stands, he brushes by Rex’ back the same as Ahsoka and almost misses Shaak’s conspirational glint from where she’s leaning against Colt – the first among them to pursue an academic career and reason for much pride for Jan’buir.

Closing the door behind him feels like stepping into solace – warding off the chill and the gentle, autumn breeze that has made them huddle together in the first place. Toeing off his shoes, he follows the lure of the warm kitchen, where steam already fogs the windows from a large pot that Ahsoka is bent over, pale tresses pulled back into her neck with a wide elastic.

Cody eases into temptation with a step closer and his nose in her neck.

Ahsoka makes a noise of discontent and he shoves the chill of his face deeper into her neck; holds her faster – she tilts her head into his. “’s almost done,” she says softly, breaks the silence around them and carefully doesn’t mention his embrace as his arms wrap around her middle. Careful not to wipe his dirty hands in her – Rex’ – vest.

“Mulled wine?” he asks, looking at the dark liquid.

Ahsoka puts the lid back on and reduces the heat. “Obi-Wan found a recipe from his _Opa_ in Austria and we thought it’d be a good idea to test it.”

Cody hums again, lips pressed to her neck before he lets go and shuffles for the sink to wash his hands. “Anything I can help with?”

The water is warm under his hands, but not hot enough to scald, and when he catches her eyes, Ahsoka is stretching for the cups in the upper cabinets, shaking her head. The vest pulls up at the front, bunches under her chin and almost swallows her. “It’ll get itself done,” she huffs, “Right now it’s just for heating up and distributing it.”

All the better – time to be a bit of a nuisance.

His hands are still a bit damp when he steps back to her, lining himself up with her back. Her hands don’t quite manage to reach for the last few cups in the very back of the cupboard and while Cody has no problem lending her his height and reaching for the last few, he is also quite loathe to let her step out of his reach, which is why one arm slings almost carelessly around her middle while the other reaches to hand her the few cups she is still in need of.

Ahsoka is a length of warmth and softness against him and she doesn’t much try to budge out of the circle of his arms but when the last cup has been put down, he still doesn’t move.

To his surprise, neither does Ahsoka.

[This is a secret among the three of them but sometimes Ahsoka doesn’t know how to take their affection. Feels odd about it. Will step out of it. Distance herself. It’s okay. They have time. They have patience.]

Instead, she sinks deeper into his makeshift embrace, until he puts his other arm around her middle, steps closer, sinks his nose into her hair, closes his eyes and breathes.

For long moments the two of them are quiet – still in the warming confines of the kitchen with the Mulled Wine heating on the stove, perfuming the air with spice and oranges. It feels like a long time when she steps out of his embrace, but it’s with a parting stroke to his hands and even as she takes off the lid to the pot, her hand stays in his.

Small. Soft. But strong enough that when she hooks her fingers into his, Cody feels the weight of it.

When she’s put the lid back onto the pot and reduced the heat, Ahsoka steps back into his embrace without a question – eyeing the cups but turning towards him, hands fiddling into the pockets of his own vest before she looks up. Swallows.

“Can I kiss you?”

Ahsoka doesn’t really look him in the eye when she asks. She never does with these questions. Cody doesn’t know why exactly, but he does know that he’s going to celebrate the day when she will manage to do so while asking for consent that he feels is a foregone conclusion on most days. With Ahsoka, though, he’s learning.

“Of course you can,” he agrees, pulls her closer to him and bends just _so_ that when she rolls to the balls of her feet, her lips find his and she gently presses the plushness of her lips against his until he feels their weight. Until he touches them with his tongue and her lips part, greet it with her own and he lifts his hands to her cheek, cradles her head while her hands link around his neck--

and the loud shutter of an Instant Camera crushes their small idyll. His head whips towards the intruder and finds _Numa_. Hopping from one leg to another while she is already awaiting the milky film of the photograph to emerge from the small camera in her hand, a wide, unrepentant smile on her face.

“Boil said 10 dollars for proof,” she grins and runs.

Cody sighs and buries his head in Ahsoka’s hair as she snorts.

Blue eyes meet his when she moves gently away but her fingers carefully, card through the mop of his curly hair; thumb smoothing over the line of his cheek-bone.

“Sucker bet,” she smirks and Cody smiles, bends back for another taste – hesitates just long enough to let her make the choice – and revels in her agreeing response.


End file.
